Various surgical bone insert tools are currently available to insert bone graft material within open fractures and large wounds within bones during orthopedic surgery to induce bone formation in fractures and fusions.
One method for delivering bone graft to a receptor site utilizing a hollow cylindrical cutter and a solid inner cylindrical plunger is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,152,763 entitled xe2x80x9cMethod for Grafting Bonexe2x80x9d.
A more recent method is found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,045,555 entitled xe2x80x9cBone Graft Delivery System and Methodxe2x80x9d. This patent discloses a hollow cylindrical cutter and a solid inner cylindrical plunger. The cutter has a cutting end and a grasping end, with the cutter having a cutting end being tapered to a sharp edge for cutting the bone graft from the donor site.
The use of bone graft insert materials in the form of thick putty-like demineralized bone, such as Grafton, which is a registered trademark of Osteotech Inc. for human bone processed into liquid gels and pastes for use in musculoskeletal surgery, impedes the use of such cylindrical insert tools because of the difficulty involved in loading the gels and pastes into the cylinders.
One purpose of the instant invention, accordingly, is to describe a simple effective means for loading the bone graft insert paste material into a cylindrical insert tool for use in bone graft insert surgery.
A surgical bone graft outer tool in the form of a three piece bone graft inserter includes a pair of concentric cylinders having elongated apertures formed in the side walls of the cylinders and a plunger. The bone graft material is introduced through the apertures then one of the cylinders is rotated to retain the graft material within the cylinders. The plunger is advanced to force the graft material through the cylinders to within the graft insert site.